After whistleblower hotlines were established at the Hawaii County Auditor’s Office in March, a proposed charter amendment would allow more tips to those hotlines to be investigated more quickly.
The amendment to the County Charter would grant the County Auditor the ability to conduct smaller investigations of county malfeasance without having to commit to a full audit.
“As the language currently stands, we can either do things as an audit or potentially not at all,” said County Auditor Tyler Benner. “So if somebody calls us about a suspected loss of, say, $200, we have to decide whether it’s worth it to do a full audit on that and replace something on our audit schedule.”
Since the pair of hotlines — one for reporting fraud and waste, the other for reporting abuse — were established, Benner said approximately 19 hotline calls have been made to his office. While he couldn’t comment specifically on the results of those calls, Benner said that some of them have been tips reporting that “something may be amiss,” rather than the conclusive proof of wrongdoing that would demand a full audit.
But with the code amendment, Benner said those tips can be followed up with less time- and resource-intensive investigations that can be completed more quickly. He estimated that his office could complete between eight and 12 such investigations a year.
“If there was an individual location where a department wasn’t accepting cash, for example, under this code amendment, we could go over there for an afternoon and observe and do a cash count,” Benner said.
Puna Councilwoman Ashley Kierkiewicz, who will introduce the code amendment before the County Finance Committee on Tuesday, said the proposed changes have been discussed for years in the same way as the whistleblower hotlines have. Those hotlines were first recommended in 2017 after an audit of the county’s hiring practices found repeated cases of favoritism when filling county positions.
Kierkiewicz said she has discussed the amendment with Corporation Counsel and believes that it should pass muster legally.
“We’ve needed to make adjustments for a long time,” Kierkiewicz said. “Right now, the auditor’s hands are tied and it’s difficult for them to do precise investigations.”
Although the proposal does not include a budget, Kierkiewicz said she envisioned an additional $25,000 to the Auditor’s Office per year to cover the cost of extra investigations.
Email Michael Brestovansky at mbrestovansky@hawaiitribune-herald.com.